Robert M. Entman's article "Cascading Activation: Contesting the White House's Frame After 9/11" examines how the media and public responded to the White House's framing of the September 11 attacks. The article introduces a new model of the relationship between government and media in U.S. foreign policy, called the cascading activation model. This model explains how interpretive frames activate and spread from the top level of a stratified system (the White House) to the network of nonadministration elites, and on to news organizations, their texts, and the public—and how interpretations feed back from lower to higher levels. The article explores the frame challenge mounted by two journalists, Seymour Hersh and Thomas Friedman, who attempted to shift the focus from Afghanistan to Saudi Arabia. The cascading activation model helps explain whether elite discord arises and how journalists can hinder or advance it. The article also discusses the role of framing in political communication, the mechanisms by which government preferred interpretations are translated into specific choices of politically consequential words and images in the news, and the public's role in the larger system of communication linking presidents, elites, journalists, news texts, and citizens. The article concludes that the cascading activation model supplements previous approaches by acknowledging variation and stratification within the levels of the system, explaining whether elite dissent emerges, and providing guidance on exactly what information in the news is critical to politics and policy-making. The model also illuminates the way news feeds back information about the public to officials, and thereby influences their actions. The article argues that the cascading activation model helps explain how the White House's preferred version flows down and dominates thinking and communication at each level, and how the media and public respond to the White House's framing of events.Robert M. Entman's article "Cascading Activation: Contesting the White House's Frame After 9/11" examines how the media and public responded to the White House's framing of the September 11 attacks. The article introduces a new model of the relationship between government and media in U.S. foreign policy, called the cascading activation model. This model explains how interpretive frames activate and spread from the top level of a stratified system (the White House) to the network of nonadministration elites, and on to news organizations, their texts, and the public—and how interpretations feed back from lower to higher levels. The article explores the frame challenge mounted by two journalists, Seymour Hersh and Thomas Friedman, who attempted to shift the focus from Afghanistan to Saudi Arabia. The cascading activation model helps explain whether elite discord arises and how journalists can hinder or advance it. The article also discusses the role of framing in political communication, the mechanisms by which government preferred interpretations are translated into specific choices of politically consequential words and images in the news, and the public's role in the larger system of communication linking presidents, elites, journalists, news texts, and citizens. The article concludes that the cascading activation model supplements previous approaches by acknowledging variation and stratification within the levels of the system, explaining whether elite dissent emerges, and providing guidance on exactly what information in the news is critical to politics and policy-making. The model also illuminates the way news feeds back information about the public to officials, and thereby influences their actions. The article argues that the cascading activation model helps explain how the White House's preferred version flows down and dominates thinking and communication at each level, and how the media and public respond to the White House's framing of events.